It points to a bleak prospect later this month, with the leave vote consolidating behind a triumphant Farage, while the remain vote splits at least four ways. But there is an obvious means to avert that scenario. If Labour made plain its commitment to submitting any Brexit deal to a confirmatory vote, it could staunch at least some of the haemorrhage of support to the remain parties.

This is the argument Labour thrashed out around the national executive table on Tuesday. I’m told that Diane Abbott, identifying herself as the MP for “remoan central”, told the group to “remember that our enemies are using this issue to drive a wedge between Jeremy and the membership”. Seeing this as a dastardly plot against the embattled but noble left is certainly one option, and it has a long tradition. But the other way of looking at it might be more productive: namely that, in its desperation to keep fishing in the Brexiter pool, Labour has turned its back on waters rich in anti-Tory voters who regard Brexit as a disaster that any opposition worth the name would be opposing. Labour could start fishing in those waters – or it could stand by, watching as its rivals steal that precious catch right from under its nose.

Rightwing ideology, currently in crisis, insists that politics takes place in a safe space, a well-defended zone away from the everyday. Everything else that happens is just the natural order of things.

This fire and its aftermath has consumed these foolish notions. Politics is about power, who has it and in whose interests it is wielded. The freedom of the market and the freedom from red tape meant people were trapped in a flaming building. No one is “playing politics” here except those desperately trying to police the boundaries of acceptable emotion and acceptable politics.

Grenfell is as political as it gets. To deny that is an insult to the dead and an assault on the intelligence of the living.